Evangel University basketball team adopts 14-year-old boy

Jan. 29, 2013
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Fourteen-year-old Christopher Banks, left, listens in the Evangel huddle during the Crusaders' game against Benedictine on Saturday. Banks, 14, has been a fixture around the basketball program since having surgery on a brain tumor three years ago. / Bruce E. Stidham, for the News-Leader

by Casey Bayliss, USA TODAY Sports

by Casey Bayliss, USA TODAY Sports

If you're ever following the Evangel University men's basketball team, either in practice or a game, one of the Crusaders seems out of place, leaving you to think, "He's too young to be on a college team."

But for 14-year-old Christopher Banks, he is right at home with the family.

When he was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2008 - it turned out to be benign - doctors told the family that Christopher would not play sports again and he would likely die in his sleep.

"How is a mother supposed to sleep at night after hearing that?" Kimberly Banks said.

And yet here he is, three years since surgery and nudging into the Evangel pre-game huddle, the timeout huddle, jogging to the locker room at halftime and sitting on the bench as the Crusaders blitz through the season.

For three years, it's been a fun ride since the team adopted him.

However, concerns are beginning to emerge again.

Years ago, Christopher experienced 100 seizures a day. Lately Christopher's teachers have reported him "spacing out" in class, which could be misconstrued as an absent seizure, his mother said. Other symptoms such as headaches, muscle weakness and personality changes have caused him to miss some school recently.

"The personality changes are what's hardest for his (16-year-old) sister. But when he can be in a really bad mood or not feeling good, we bring him here (Ashcroft Center) and he leaves happy," Kimberly said. "It's something we like to keep normal and they are family."

Certainly, the Crusaders have provided a setting that helps Christopher escape from the real world and be around the game he absolutely loves.

Christopher doesn't have one favorite player because, to him, it's like he has 18 older brothers. However, he does have a past favorite, Jackson Capel, who became Evangel's all-time leading scorer in 2008. Capel, who scored 2,227 points in his career, now plays pro ball in Germany and visits the Banks family whenever he is in town.

"Jackson came to my birthday party once. Him and Mike (Storey)," Christopher remembered with excitement. "And they helped us when we moved house, too."

Christopher feels a strong connection to any player wearing Capel's old No. 13 jersey. This season, that's J.J. Williams, the team's transfer point guard who handed the boy his Nike Hyperdunk shoes after a practice last week.

"That's just how they are here," Kimberly said. "It just warms your heart."

Williams said he hopes the small gesture has an impact on Christopher's life.

"One day he might be in a situation where he's able to give to somebody else in the same manor, and he'll do it out of remembrance for somebody who did it for him," Williams said. "You hear about his situation and what he's been through, but then you see how bad he wants to be around the team and how much he loves the game. It's inspiring. It makes me not take for granted that I get to play."

Christopher has come a long way since his surgery in 2009 at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis. The surgery successfully removed 100 percent of a tumor the size of a lemon. However, a return to normalcy was slow. Tasks that seemed so simple before were completely forgotten, such as how to read and how to tie his shoes. Christopher had to learn these tasks all over again.

Christopher will return to Le Bonheur on Feb. 11 to have his symptoms tested. The vigorous tests will mean he will have to be sedated. His mom said he's in denial because he doesn't want to be sick again.

To which her son counters ...

"I keep telling you it's not a tumor," Christopher said. "I just get mad sometimes. I've seen guys at practice get more mad than me."

It's understandable if he is concerned about being away from the team.

When Christopher was home-schooled, his mother enrolled him in Evangel's home-school physical education program. There, he practiced with the men's basketball team. Even after he returned to Hickory Hills School for the last two weeks of the fourth grade, he continued to join the Crusaders at practice and for home games.

"Four years have gone by and he was here before I was and I remember when I first came here he was just a little guy running around. I've been able to watch him grow up. But he's helped me grow, too," senior guard Jayme Donnelly said. "He's like a little brother that we always expect to be there, in the locker room getting a little rowdy and just with so much energy."

For the team, not having Christopher around for the late-season matchups would only make the Crusaders fight harder.

"It's tragic when kids that age have to go through such trauma like that, it puts things in perspective," Williams explained. "When I come out of the game and look down the bench, I shake everyone's hands, and then I see Chris. He's just as excited as anybody, you'd think he just came off the floor and scored 50.

"With him not being there I know, for me, it's definitely going to ‚?¶ ring a bell," Williams said. "Coming down and shaking everyone's hands and not getting to see that smile and that excitement. But as a team we'll be praying for him and we'll be here for him."